Damage tolerance assessment by bend and shear tests of two multilayer

composites: glass fibre reinforced metal laminate and aluminium roll-bonded

laminate
C.M. Cepeda-Jimnez(1)*, R.C. Alderliesten(2) , O.A. Ruano(1), F. Carreo(1)
(1)
Department of Physical Metallurgy, CENIM, CSIC, Av. Gregorio del Amo 8, 28040
Madrid, Spain
(2)
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Structures and
Materials Laboratory, P.O. Box 5058, 2600 GB Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract
The damage tolerance of an aluminium roll-bonded laminate (ALH19) and a
glass fibre reinforced laminate (GLARE) (both based in Al 2024-T3) has been studied.
The composite laminates have been tested under 3-point bend and shear tests on the
interfaces to analyze their fracture behaviour. During the bend tests different fracture
mechanisms were activated for both laminates, which depend on the constituent
materials and their interfaces. The high intrinsic toughness of the pure Al 1050 layers
present in the aluminium roll-bonded laminate (ALH19), together with extrinsic
toughening mechanisms such as crack bridging and interface delamination were
responsible for the enhanced toughness of this composite laminate. On the other hand,
crack deflection by debonding between the glass fibres and the plastic resin in GLARE,
was the main extrinsic toughening mechanism present in this composite laminate.

Keywords: A. Aluminium alloys; A. Laminates; B. Delamination; B. Interfacial

strength; C. Fracture mechanisms.

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 91 5538900; fax: +34 91 5347425.

E-mail address: cm.cepeda@cenim.csic.es (C.M. Cepeda-Jimnez)

1. Introduction
In the last decades, multilayered structures can be readily fabricated with proper
control over interfacial and constituent properties. This control over the fabrication
process enables the design of materials with optimally tailored fracture toughness and
mechanical behaviour [1-4]. Fibre/metal laminates (FMLs) have emerged as viable
materials for aeronautical applications, thanks to their excellent fatigue and damage
resistance, impact properties, possibility of inspection after impact threats, ease of
machinability and formability [5,6]. FMLs were developed at Delft University of
Technology as a family of hybrid materials that consist of bonded thin aluminium sheets
and fibres embedded in epoxy resin [7]. The most outstanding FML is GLARE, which
consists of thin aluminium 2024-T3 layers, bonded together with glass fibres embedded
in epoxy resin. On the other hand, a previous work [8] showed that it is possible to
obtain aluminium multilayer materials with high impact toughness by hot roll-bonding
processing.
The utilization of multilayer laminates in large transport aircraft structures is
conditioned to their damage tolerance properties [9]. As a consequence, the damage
tolerance concept is becoming highly important in material design, in order to warrant
structural integrity under the occurrence of any damage.
Traditionally Charpy impact test has been used to evaluate the relative toughness
of materials, being an economical quality control method to asses the notch sensitivity
of engineering materials. In this work, bend tests have been selected because they
deliver much more useful information about the mechanical properties and damage
tolerance of the composite laminates than the Charpy impact test. The bend tests of V-
notched Charpy samples allow determination of yield and maximum stresses, a
graphical visualization of layer fracture and the different fracture mechanisms as testing
proceeds, and finally, comparison of toughness values by comparison of the areas inside
the load-displacement curves. Additionally, the shear test allows quantitative
assessment of the bond between layers, permitting prediction of possible delaminations,
and thus, the damage tolerance of the layered material.
Therefore, the objective of the present work is to compare mechanical properties
obtained by bend and shear tests of an aluminium multilayer composite with GLARE,
analyzing the fracture mechanisms responsible for the impact damage resistance
improvement. Furthermore, it is presented an alternative aluminium multilayer
composite with high strength and outstanding toughness processed by high temperature
roll bonding, which is a relative simple technique that can be carried out in a
conventional rolling plant using parameters that are easy to control (e.g. percentage
reduction, rolling speed, roll diameter, processing temperature, etc.).

2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Materials and processing
The aluminium alloys used were rolled Al 2024-T3 alloy (termed L) of 2 mm
in thickness and foils of commercial pure Al 1050-H24 (termed H) of 0.5 mm in
thickness. The main alloying elements of the Al 2024 alloy are Cu (4.43 wt.%), Mg
(1.33 wt.%) and Mn (0.62 wt.%). Ten Al 2024 alloy layers and nine Al 1050 layers
were stacked alternately, making up a bundle of 24.5 mm in thickness, 60 mm in width
and 150 mm in length and referenced in this work as ALH19. The stacked aluminium
composite material was welded by Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) at their edges and then hot-
rolled at 465 C in four series of four passes of about 4-8% reduction per pass,
corresponding to an equivalent true strain of =0.96 (according to Von Misses
criterion). The sample was reheated between series. The diameter of the rolls was 130
mm and the rolling speed was 346 mm/s. The composite laminate was rolled parallel to
the rolling direction of the as-received sheets. This rolling was carried out at high
temperature and the laminate was cooled slowly to room temperature. A T6 heat
treatment was given subsequently to optimize the mechanical properties of the Al 2024
alloy included in the laminate material. This heat treatment involves solution treating
the alloy at 495 C for 30 min, followed by rapid quenching in water and finally age
hardening at 160 C for 16 h. The resulting hot-rolled composite laminate was in the
form of a plate, of thickness about 11 mm, length about 350 mm and width about 60
mm. The thickness of the Al 2024 layers in the ALH19 was 910 m and that of the
pure Al 1050 layers was 250 m.
The GLARE laminate used in the present study was a composite laminate with
four Al 2024-T3 layers of 0.4 mm thickness with in-between uni-directional fibre layers
and coded as Glare 2A-4/3-0.4, which refers to, respectively, the GLARE grade, the lay-
up and the aluminium layer thickness. More details on other GLARE configurations are
given elsewhere [10]. The fibre reinforced composite, under form of rectangular panel
400 mm in length, 192 mm in width and 2.3 mm in thickness, was fabricated at Delft
University of Technology. Rectangular specimens (1022.3 mm3) were cut and
polished according to metallographic techniques and observed under an optical
microscope to precisely evaluate the thickness of the constituent layers. The thickness
of Al sheets resulted to be 390 m and that of the glass fibre reinforced resin layers
290 m.
2.2. Mechanical tests
The mechanical behaviour of the multilayer composite laminates was measured
by three point bend tests and shear tests. The bending was performed using a Servosis
universal test machine under displacement control at a rate of 0.04 mm/s. Figure 1
shows a macrograph of a bend tested sample on the bending tool used in this study. The
as-received Al 2024 and pure Al 1050 monolithic materials and the composite laminates
were tested in the crack arrester orientation. The rolled microstructure in the as-received
aluminium materials, with elongated grains in the rolling direction, permits to
distinguish two different orientations. Thus, for the as-received materials, in the so-
called crack arrester orientation the notch tip is parallel to the plane and rolling
directions. For the laminate materials, in the crack arrester orientation the crack is
forced to pass through each layer sequentially, and it is the natural configuration for an
aluminium panel in an airplane. This configuration is the most interesting, both
technically and scientifically, to study the different fracture mechanisms operating
during the bend test. Two mm V-notched Charpy type specimens (10x10x55 mm3) in
the crack-arrester orientation were machined from the as-received materials and the
ALH19 composite laminate to carry out the bend test, being the loading span 40 mm.
For the GLARE laminate, rectangular specimens (2.3x10x55 mm3) were cut and V-
notched (0.47 mm depth) also in the crack-arrester orientation and bend tested with a
loading span of 20 mm in order to obtain similar deformation. On the other hand, the
ratio notch depth/laminate thickness was approximately the same for both multilayer
materials in order to conserve similar aspect ratio. The glass fibres orientation in the
prepreg layer was perpendicular to the notch tip, being the most favourable orientation
to obtain the maximum stiffness and strength during bending loads. The fibres in the
composite are strong and stiff and support most of the applied loads. Three samples of
each material were bend tested.
A representation of the true raw data, load vs. displacement, was used in order to
characterize the mechanical response to layer fracture and crack propagation across the
composite laminates, which is an assessment of damage tolerance. Additionally, and in
order to take into account the different laminate thicknesses, nominal stress vs. nominal
strain was also represented for comparison. The nominal stress, , and the nominal
strain, , were converted from the recorded raw data according to the following relations
[11]:
3 pl 6ed
= = (1)
2ae 2 l2
where a is the initial width of the sample, e is the initial thickness of the sample minus
the V-notch depth, l is the span length between the supports, p is the force applied on
the sample and d is the midspan displacement of the sample. Fracture surfaces of
selected specimens were examined by both macroscopic observations and optical
microscopy to evaluate deformation micromechanisms during crack propagation.
Metallographic preparation involved methods of standard surface preparation.
The interface mechanical properties were measured by shear test in a Servosis
universal test machine at a cross-head rate of 0.005 mm/s, using specimens of
approximate dimensions 10x10x3 mm3 for the ALH19 composite laminate and
10x2.3x1.5 mm3 for GLARE. The test was performed by clamping the sample between
two metal supports (Figure 2). The interface to be tested is located just outside the
border of the tool and parallel to the load direction. Then, a square punch at a given gap
distance is used to apply the shear load until failure of the interface. The shear stress, ,
and the shear strain, , are given by the expressions [12]
p d
= = tan( ) = (2)
ae l gap
where a, e, p and d have been already defined, is the shear angle and lgap is the span
length between the supports and the mobile punch, corresponding to 0.35 mm in this
study.

3. Results and discussion

Figure 3 shows load-displacement (Fig. 3a and 3b) and nominal stress-nominal
strain (Fig 3c) curves obtained from three point bend tests. Figure 3a includes F-d
curves for the notched monolithic as-received Al 2024 alloy and pure Al 1050, and
ALH19 roll-bonding laminate, which were 10 mm in thickness. Separately, a load-
displacement curve for GLARE is shown in Figure 3b. All materials were tested in
bending in the crack arrester orientation. Additionally, and for comparison, Figure 3c
include nominal stress vs. nominal strain curves for all considered materials in this
work. As it has been mentioned previously, the objective of representing nominal
parameters is to compare samples with different thickness and to evaluate their damage
tolerance. As shown in Figs. 3a and 3c, the Al 2024 alloy presents a high bending
strength (750 MPa) and limited ductility. In contrast, the pure Al 1050 presents low
bending strength (237 MPa) but excellent plasticity. The ALH19 composite laminate
has a maximum bending stress of 595 MPa. GLARE laminate shows a maximum
bending stress of 689 MPa (Figure 3c). The ductility for both composite laminates is
outstanding due to different intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of fracture that will be
analysed later. Accordingly, the outstanding increase in ductility and the high
mechanical strength observed in both laminate composites can be associated with high
damage tolerance. Additionally, the figures clearly reveal differences between the
fracture mechanisms of both laminate materials, which are consequence of the
properties of the constituent materials and their interfaces. The curve corresponding to
the ALH19 composite laminate (Fig 3a) shows first some strain hardening (1) and then
drops in load when cracking occurs in the more brittle Al 2024 layers (2 and 5),
followed by gradual crack arrest in the pure Al 1050 layers (3) due to its high toughness
(intrinsic toughening mechanism). The short plateau in the F-d curve (4) indicates
plastic deformation of the remaining material while the main crack is slowly
propagating across the pure Al 1050 layer until a new drop through the Al 2024 layer
occurs. The slow and stepped crack propagation across the ALH19 composite laminate
compared to Al 2024 alloy increases noticeably the area inside the F-d curve and thus
the material toughness. On the other hand, the GLARE laminate (Fig. 3b) shows a first
load drop which coincides with cracking of the notched Al 2024 layer (6) until the crack
is arrested in the resin layer by the debonding of the glass fibres with the epoxy resin.
Debonded fibres act like unbroken ligaments bridging the main crack, being necessary
additional bend deformation to fracture them (classical fibre bridging fracture
mechanism). The high damage tolerance of the GLARE material is mainly due to this
fracture mechanism. Thus, the debonding between the glass fibres and the epoxy matrix
produces crack deflection by delamination (extrinsic toughening mechanisms). Then,
extensive strain hardening (7) is observed due mainly to the contribution of the high
ultimate tensile strength of the glass fibres and also to the plastic deformation of the
remaining material. Above a given load, the aluminium starts to deform plastically
while the fibres are still in the elastic regime. This causes high shear stresses in the
resin-rich layer [13] which favours delamination. As deformation proceeds,
delaminations shift the support point of the fibres during the bend test, being necessary
further deformation and stress to fracture them, increasing the GLARE strength. Thus,
the ultimate strain of the fibres (8) controls the ultimate flexure stress. Finally after the
large load drop due to the cracking of the fibres, the plateau region (9) correspond to
plastic deformation of the remaining material until the next load drop occurs, indicating
that the critical strain needed for crack renucleation in the next aluminium layer is
reached.
Figure 4 shows at different magnifications SEM and optical micrographs of the
crack propagation sequence in the ALH19 composite laminate during the bend test. The
main crack (Fig 4a) initiated at the notch tip (1) in a pure Al 1050 layer, and then
propagated through this and the next Al 2024 layer (2) under mode I (opening)
conditions, until it is arrested at the pure Al 1050 layer (3) by an intrinsic mechanism,
due to its inherent toughness offering high resistance to the crack growth (Figure 4b).
While the main crack is being retarded at the pure aluminium layer, other two extrinsic
fracture mechanisms (Figure 4c) named crack bridging (4) and interface
delamination (5) occur. According to the crack bridging mechanism, different cracks
reinitiate (4) in the next Al 2024 layer before the main crack reaches it, because its bend
failure strain is reached. Thus, in this extrinsic toughening mechanism, unbroken
ligaments in the pure Al 1050 and Al 2024 alloy in the wake of the crack prevent
catastrophic crack propagation due to the bridging of the crack. Crack growth requires
stretching of the bridging ligaments with additional energy absorption. On the other
hand, in the interface delamination mechanism (5) the next interface is delaminating
locally before the main crack reaches it due to the stresses that the interface has to stand
when the bending test proceeds. This mechanism results in a reduction and
redistribution of the local stress and warrants further delamination and renucleation of a
new crack, thus improving ductility. The combination of these fracture mechanisms
(intrinsic and extrinsic) is responsible for the enhanced damage tolerance of the ALH19
composite laminate.
Figure 5 shows a macrograph of GLARE laminate after bend testing. The
macrograph illustrates the fracture of glass fibres after high tensile strain. Also
debonding between fibres and resin matrix is clearly evidenced. The GLARE laminate
presents several delaminations, together with extensive plastic deformation of Al 2024
layers necessary to induce crack renucleation.
To precisely characterize the mechanical properties of interfaces, which are the
main responsible of the fracture mechanisms and the damage tolerance improvement
observed, shear tests along them have been performed (Figure 6). The interfaces in the
ALH19 composite laminate are assigned numbers to indicate their location in the
laminate (for example, i4 means interface four). Two possible fibres orientation
(vertical and horizontal) were considered for shearing along the interfaces of the
GLARE laminate and only the middle interface of different samples was tested due to
the small thickness of the GLARE laminate. For comparison, monolithic pure Al 1050
(H) and Al 2024 (L) alloy are also included. The maximum shear stress of the Al 2024
(L) alloy is 232 MPa (scaled on the right ordinate axis), and the plastic shear
deformation is 1.19. In contrast, the maximum shear stress of pure Al 1050 is only 58
MPa, but it is much more ductile ( plast.max.=6.5). Regarding the composite laminates,
the interfaces of the ALH19 laminate are ductile, having elongation to failure values
(plast.max6) similar to the monolithic pure Al 1050. On the other hand, the shear
strength is slightly higher than for the pure Al 1050 which may be attributed to grain
refinement strengthening due to the rolling process. Failure occurred in the Al 1050 (H)
next to the interface. Thus, the bond strength exceeds the fracture strength of the weaker
component (Al 1050), an indication of high bond integrity. It is worth noting that in
ALH19 laminate only one type of interfaces is present between aluminium layers. In
contrast, two interface types are possible in the GLARE material: epoxy-aluminium
interface and epoxy-fibre interface. The interfaces of the GLARE laminate show lower
shear strength than those of the ALH19 composite laminate, especially for horizontal
fibre orientation which is perpendicular to the applied load direction, and very low
ductility (plast.max<1) with a cohesive failure in the epoxy matrix which was evidenced
by the presence of fibres in both shear fractured surfaces. This is consistent with an
adhesion failure in the epoxy-fibre interface between the glass fibres and epoxy resin.
The low shear strength of the glass fibre reinforced polymer layer induces delamination
growth under bend loads increasing the toughness by an extrinsic crack deflection
mechanism. Therefore, the shear strength of the adhesive and the bonding with the glass
fibres play an important role in the possible occurrence of extrinsic toughening
mechanisms, such as delamination, during loading. Finally, Figure 7 shows an optical
micrograph of the as-received glass fibre reinforced plastic layer. The figure shows the
glass fibres embedded in resin matrix and some debonding between the fibres and the
epoxy adhesive, marked with arrows, which would be in agreement with the low shear
strength of the adhesive layer observed in the shear tests.
4. Conclusions
Damage tolerance and fracture mechanisms of two multilayer composite
laminates based in different constituent materials have been assessed by three point
bend and shear tests. A multilayer laminate composite of Al 2024 and Al 1050 has been
processed by hot-roll bonding, resulting in a material of high bend strength and
ductility, which can be associated with high impact toughness and damage tolerance
that could be competitive with the GLARE material. The fracture mechanisms of the
multilayer composite laminates depend on the properties of the constituent materials
and their interfaces. The high intrinsic toughness of pure Al 1050 layers and extrinsic
mechanisms such as crack bridging and interface delamination were mainly responsible
of crack arresting in the bend test of the ALH19 laminate. On the other hand, crack
deflection by debonding between the glass fibres and the epoxy matrix was responsible
of the high damage tolerance of the GLARE material.

Acknowledgements
Financial support from CICYT (Project MAT2003-01172) is gratefully
acknowledged. C.M. Cepeda-Jimnez thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education and
Science for a Juan de la Cierva contract. Authors also thank Delft University of
Technology for providing the GLARE.

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Figure Captions
Figure 1. Macrograph of a bend tested sample.
Figure 2. Scheme of the shear test.
Figure 3. Three point bend test of notched as-received Al 2024-T3 alloy and pure Al
1050-H24, and ALH19 and GLARE composite laminates in crack arrester orientation.
a) and b) Load-displacement curves; c) Stress-strain curves.
Figure 4. a) SEM and b) and c) optical micrographs of a bend tested ALH19 composite
laminate showing different fracture mechanisms as a function of the constituent
materials: b) Crack arresting in pure Al 1050 layers by an intrinsic toughening
mechanism; c) Crack bridging and interface delamination.
Figure 5. Macrograph of fractured bend tested GLARE sample.
Figure 6. Shear test of as-received pure Al 1050-H24 and Al 2024-T3 alloy, and on
different interfaces of ALH19 and GLARE composite laminates.
Figure 7. Optical micrograph of the fibre glass reinforced plastic layer of as-received
GLARE showing the glass fibres embedded in resin matrix. The arrows indicate fibre-
resin debonding.
Figure 1

Figure 2
a) 9
Al 2024 (L)
8
7
(1) (2) (3)
6 (4)

F (kN)
5
(5)
4 ALH19
3
2
1 Al 1050 (H)
0
0 4 8 12 16
d (mm)

b)
0.7
(8)
0.6
GLARE
(7)

0.5
(6)
F (kN)

0.4

0.3
(9)
0.2

0.1

0
0 4 8 12 16
d (mm)

c)
800
Al 2024 (L)
700

600

500
(MPa)

400 ALH19
300

200

100 GLARE
0
0 10 20 30 40
(%)

Figure 3
a)

b)

c)

Figure 4

13
 Figure 5

120 240
Al 2024 (L)
100 200

(MPa) for Al-2024

ALH19-i12
80 ALH19-i8 160
(MPa)

Al 1050 (H)
60 120
GLARE-vertical fibres
40 80
ALH19-i4
20 40
GLARE-horizontal fibres
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
plastic

Figure 6

14
 Figure 7

15